I hereby invoke a modified version of Goodin's Law. If you have to resort to Nazi analogies then you automatically lose the argument, due to lameness and laziness.
@chrisdag: Ordinarily, you'd be right. However, considering that Ahmedinejad is running a totalitarian government that jails, beats and kills its opposition, a lot like, oh, I don't know, Hitler did, the comparison is a bit more apt.
She looks like she might be smirking behind that photo, which means for such a young child, she's probably well aware of what the implications are. I just find that very cool.
@BeckySharper: Yeah, that's the funny thing about some Holocaust deniers who are also anti-semites. If Hitler didn't really kill so many Jews, why was he such a big deal?
@BeckySharper: That's why I was thinking. Would he even be embarrassed by the comparison? Someone (Bill Maher?) said all the Holocaust denial is just Middle Eastern politics and campaign rhetoric to get elected b/c people in the region wanted someone who thumbed their noses at the West and Israel. That there is no real hatred of Jews just inflammatory rhetoric to get everyone's attention.
I hate to see small children at protests, no matter how important or right the cause is. I don't know, I guess there's such precious little time for children to be innocent. Though, perhaps no child is innocent when living in the midst of such upset.
@Majrhoulihan: I agree... sometimes I see them as "tools" used by grown ups (esp. anti choicers), this is not ok, even if it's for a worthy cause (as in this case).
@Majrhoulihan: Yeah, that's a tough one. On the one hand, shouldn't parents expose their children to causes we believe in? That's our right and our duty as parents, I believe. Growing up, my family was very pro-union, never crossed a picket line, and marched on behalf of the Teamsters. It was important to my parents to teach us how the union effort improved the lives of working folk. On the other hand, exactly what you said: their window of innocence is small, and shrinking every day. Why introduce adult topics to little minds?
And then there is always the possibility of violence at a protest, and I don't think it's fair to expose your children to that. So: I'm torn.
@nellicat: It's just that, the same line of thinking is applied by the parents who drag their children out to the abortion protests outside of my local hospital. Your kids will learn what you believe whether you take them out there with you or not.
@Majrhoulihan: Especially when police are firing into crowds of protesters. You, as an adult, can make the choice to risk your life for your cause, but you can't make that choice for your child.
@Majrhoulihan: I'm so ambivalent about this myself. My mother took my brother and I to marches for reproductive rights when we were kids, we often went with her to the Mall when she was working on the NAMES Project, my grandmother had me chanting "ERA NOW!" when I was 2, and we were taught from a very early age what my parents (and even grandparents) believed. But I guess the difference is that everything I was taught had its foundation in equality, acceptance, tolerance, and above all peace. I guess the difference is that what were taught to exercise our rights and beliefs peacefully. Parents who bring their kids to anti-choice rallies and anti-gay demonstrations are teaching their kids hatred and violence. And that sets those kids up for a tough life where they learn that anger, hatred and violence are okay.
@Majrhoulihan: I agree in theory-- I wish the innocence of childhood would last longer too. But kids pick up so much information in and out of the home. As long as they are being involved in protests/causes advocating peace and equality, i think it can be a good thing. my parents were very vocal about their leftist politics and gay and animal rights, and i remember as a very young kid going to animal shelters to volunteer and meetings, etc. i influenced a lot of my friends who hadn't ever been taught that hitting a dog is wrong, or throwing a cat around is NOT funny, or that gay people were just normal people. heh, my elementary school friends were even chastised for smashing slugs or thinking certain animals were 'gross' or calling anyone a 'fag'. it gave me a level of compassion and passion for causes i may have picked up bad impressions otherwise. that said, it works both ways, and seeing little children at anti choice rallies is incredibly disturbing. i hate to think of the rhetoric they are distributing to their peers. i think the world is so informationally overloaded that the earlier you can teach your kids about/ show them other large groups of people who advocate important issues is probably good.
I think this video and related pictures are roughly analogous to the picture of Emmett Till published in Look in 1955. Sometimes, the truth is horrible, but it still needs to be seen.
I don't think enough can be said about this situation. Just as I don't think enough can ever be said about Neda and her horrifying death in the street. At first I typed horrifying, pointless death, but recanted the pointless because I am making myself believe that her senseless and untimely death will not go unnoticed. No, it's not easy to watch. Yes, it has been fixed in my mind since I watched it and her name comes to my mind very often and I'll never forget about her or the look on her face as she died. But it's also not easy to actually live through scenes like this one every day. Nor is it easy to fear for your future, as in, do you really have one. None of it is easy. But as another jezebelle posted yesterday, it is important for us to bear witness to Neda's death. It is important for us to remember her name and by extension what killed her.
*Please note: I am just as guilty as living in my own tiny bubble, in happy ignorance, as many others. I'm one of the people who reasons, I have enough to worry about in my own day-to-day. Which is why I felt, and feel, so ashamed when faced with the awful fact of the death of a young woman, same age as me, because of the hatred and tyranny and all-around evil that she and her peers are faced with every day. So to Neda and all those who've met or will meet similar fates, I apologize. I will not forget you. Your beautiful bloodied faces are permanently imprinted in my mind, and my sympathy is endless.
As Americans, we need to see this. This is reality, not Halo 2 or Grand Theft Auto. This is revolution, not Perez Hilton. This is people fighting for their rights, not fighting over of The Real Housewives of New Jersey has the biggest breasts.
If you wish to avert your gaze, fine. As many have suggested, stay away from the sources of news, because this is real news, not Jon and Kate getting a divorce. And the outcome of this will have tremendous repercussions for all of us. This is not some isolated incident, happening to "those people over there." In a way, it is happening to us all.
Not to be a PIA, but was that picture necessary? There was a reason why I did not click on Neda's final horrific minutes of her life. I really wish I did not see that picture of her bleeding out of her face.
@Sev: That's really not fair -- she's not making this about herself. She has a right to sheild herself from things she finds horrific or traumatizing and she's asking for that right to be respected.
@KatrinaBullfinch: Not to sound rude or sarcastic (i am being sincere), but perhaps she should steer clear of the internet then. You can't go onto a website that has postings about global current events and expect to shield yourself. It just doesn't work that way.
@Sev: I'm an Iranian American. I majored in Farsi in college. I still have family back in Iran. I refuse to see this video. I don't need those images haunting me to empathize with people's plights.
I still wish I could unsee the Daniel Pearl video too. It doesn't make me care about the situation any less.
I was at a protest in Toronto on Sunday. It's moving to see so many people galvanized by this, but even more frustrating that it seems more and more that nothing will come of it except more dead protesters. Hundreds have gone missing already.
This is a disturbing, infuriating photograph. All I see is a vast, black ocean of repression. I know I am making a judgement against another culture, but dammit, I am going to take the hard-line on this. The purpose of the burqa is to cover every part of a woman that makes her a woman. These women have been reduced from vibrant, rich individuals to monotone, faceless, body-less, sexless, hidden-away minions.
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And then there is always the possibility of violence at a protest, and I don't think it's fair to expose your children to that. So: I'm torn.
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"One day lad, all this will be yours!"
"What, the curtains?"
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(well, maybe this one was marginal, being about Hitler and all)
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*Please note: I am just as guilty as living in my own tiny bubble, in happy ignorance, as many others. I'm one of the people who reasons, I have enough to worry about in my own day-to-day. Which is why I felt, and feel, so ashamed when faced with the awful fact of the death of a young woman, same age as me, because of the hatred and tyranny and all-around evil that she and her peers are faced with every day. So to Neda and all those who've met or will meet similar fates, I apologize. I will not forget you. Your beautiful bloodied faces are permanently imprinted in my mind, and my sympathy is endless.
06/23/09
If you wish to avert your gaze, fine. As many have suggested, stay away from the sources of news, because this is real news, not Jon and Kate getting a divorce. And the outcome of this will have tremendous repercussions for all of us. This is not some isolated incident, happening to "those people over there." In a way, it is happening to us all.
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I still wish I could unsee the Daniel Pearl video too. It doesn't make me care about the situation any less.
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And as symbolic as that video was, I wish I could un-see it.
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("We're gay; we're glad! But don't tell mom and dad!" Oh The Simpsons. Is there anything you can't do?)
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